an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes

Main menu

Ethics of Combat

uruwashi [ 斌 ] denotes elegance. The character is a synthesis of the cultural and the martial, bound by traditions of learning, effort, and respect.

The core questions are both simple and problematic: if and why we contest; and how we treat each other before, during, and afterwards.

Writing

The category of ‘Ethics of Combat’-related posts on the quemdixerechaos.com blog, including an ongoing (2013-14) series about Castel Rigone Calcio, a soccer club in Italy with philosophical standards. This series has expanded the scope of my inquiry to include the ‘Ethics of Competition’.

Teaching

In 2007 I received a faculty fellowship at DePauw to study “The ethics of combat in the ancient Mediterranean and samurai Japan.” This course-development project became a First-Year Honor Scholar Seminar entitled “The Ethics of Combat”. Here is the syllabus for the second iteration of that course. The project went on hiatus from 2009-13 during my term as Dean of Academic Life at DePauw.

Travel

The 2007 grant allowed travel to Japan, where I did a three-week study trip to research the footsteps of the swordsman/artist/philosopher Miyamoto Musashi and his early 17th-c. contemporaries.

Forthcoming will be a travel guide and Google Maps mash-up for anyone wishing to trace the historical and legendary locales of Musashi and his fellow swordsmen.